Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1-18)

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AAdamsPDX
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Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1-18)

Post by AAdamsPDX » January 26th, 2015, 7:16 pm

If you don't know what Ents are, you need to read some Tolkien. Truly. In my imagination, they always look something like this:
Arcadia_0009.jpg
First, I need to say that I feel really out of my league, posting anything in the off-trail section. Folks posting here are usually legends with GPS navigation. I have no such expertise. In fact, this was the first trip we've taken where we relied on GPS-driven technology in any way (other than to occasionally confirm our location) - an iPhone app, not even the "real" thing, but it worked like a charm. Well, sort of, but that's part of the story!

I've seen a few postings here about the Arcadia Cedar, and we decided on a whim on the 18th that we would head out and try to find it. Given more time I probably would have sought guidance from you all. Instead I followed Google's lead to a geocaching site: http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4T ... edar-grove

Armed with GPS coordinates and a sense of "Aw, heck, we're going to get wet!" we headed to the coast through pouring-down rain. As we arrived at the Arcadia Beach parking area, the sun came out! What luck.

The directions on the geocaching site, along with the coordinates, made the whole thing feel like cheating. We passed this amazing cedar stump during our trek:
IMG_1230.jpg
When we arrived at the coordinates from the site, we discovered a beautiful cedar - but certainly not the largest tree in Oregon! I've seen Dougs that had to be almost this big around in the Bull of the Woods, and they certainly looked taller. Still, like I said, a gorgeous tree.
Arcadia_0019.jpg
Ents.jpg
We HAD in fact arrived at the geocache location (we found the cache and everything!), but had failed to account for the fact that perhaps not all geocachers are as serious about trees as they are about treasure hunting. To be fair, when I re-read the instructions on the website, the writer clarified that he "thought" the tree was the Arcadia Cedar.

We looked around a bit and my husband was sure he spotted a tree up the slope that had a double trunk and looked huge. Given our late start and the fact that the wind had picked up and we expected pouring rain again at any moment - combined with my insistence that the Arcadia Cedar didn't split (oops!) - we bailed and decided to try again another day. Of course, upon returning home, I read somewhere that the tree does split into two trunks. (Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw this!) We welcome hints if anyone wants to share - I know at least one intrepid PH-er has been to the geocache tree on the way to the real deal, because I found a pic on Sean's writeup here that matched the tree we found: http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... 8&p=154427!

Even though we didn't discover THE tree, we thoroughly enjoyed our trek!

We were wrong about the rain because we were able to enjoy some time on the beach before heading home.
Arcadia_0020.jpg
Arcadia_0033.jpg
As we were leaving Cannon Beach after a stop for tea, the rain started in again - on its "pour" setting! Perfect timing for a perfect day.
"The world begins where the road ends." ~Eddie Vedder
http://www.hriggsphotography.com/

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Guy
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by Guy » January 26th, 2015, 7:30 pm

Well I could give you the coordinates & will if you ask but if you still want a bit of a challenge there are quite a few clues here. :)
hiking log & photos.
Ad monte summa aut mors

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Sean Thomas
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by Sean Thomas » January 26th, 2015, 8:00 pm

Nice pictures from your trek. I read an article(Oregonlive maybe?) that said the tree was on the edge of the state land boundary and more specifically in a corner of the parcel. Then I found Guy's writeup/links that he posted above and went out searching.

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AAdamsPDX
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by AAdamsPDX » January 26th, 2015, 8:21 pm

Guy and Sean, thanks! We'll head back out with these hints and try again. Guy, you are correct - I don't so much want the GPS coordinates. Somehow it really DID feel like cheating to simply look at coordinates and adjust our heading to match our position relative to the coordinates. Really not a quest at all, though it was still a lot of fun! And pictures that both of you have shared of the tree make me all the more determined to make it a true quest - this tree looks like it's worth that level of trek-dom. :D
"The world begins where the road ends." ~Eddie Vedder
http://www.hriggsphotography.com/

cfm
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by cfm » January 26th, 2015, 11:38 pm

Thanks for visiting my cache. I hope you rehid it as you found it and signed the log. I thought I had checked out the big trees up slope and they were all Sitka spruces and Douglas Firs. I'll go back some time and find the real one and move the cache. Post the coords on the cache page if you get a cache.

signed, the cfm, crappy tree finder

Image

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retired jerry
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by retired jerry » January 27th, 2015, 7:13 am

they do look sort of Ent-like. Mostly fallen asleep and become tress? The lost Ent wives???

raftingdog
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by raftingdog » January 27th, 2015, 7:59 am

I love NW pics that make people appear as garden gnomes .. lucky to live here

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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by AAdamsPDX » January 27th, 2015, 9:17 am

cfm wrote:Thanks for visiting my cache. I hope you rehid it as you found it and signed the log. I thought I had checked out the big trees up slope and they were all Sitka spruces and Douglas Firs. I'll go back some time and find the real one and move the cache. Post the coords on the cache page if you get a cache.

signed, the cfm, crappy tree finder

Image
The photo you post here isn't the same tree where we found the cache - what a great shot of a great tree! If the cache we found was yours, it was really fun and your directions were great. (Like I said, they were so good it felt like cheating.) I took a video for my niece and nephew of my husband opening the cache box and would be happy to send it to you via a message if you're interested. We've never done anything with geocaching and I wasn't sure if there is any etiquette within the community about posting photos or videos, so I didn't post any of those photos here.

Also, my apologies for my off-the-cuff comment about geocachers and trees. Your photo is proof that you are indeed a tree fan and in retrospect my comment was rude. :oops: Sorry about that!
"The world begins where the road ends." ~Eddie Vedder
http://www.hriggsphotography.com/

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AAdamsPDX
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by AAdamsPDX » January 27th, 2015, 9:19 am

retired jerry wrote:they do look sort of Ent-like. Mostly fallen asleep and become tress? The lost Ent wives???
The lost Ent wives of the Arcadia Grove! I love this thought!!! :D
raftingdog wrote:I love NW pics that make people appear as garden gnomes .. lucky to live here
I've lived here since '97 and I still pinch myself sometimes. Definitely lucky!
"The world begins where the road ends." ~Eddie Vedder
http://www.hriggsphotography.com/

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kepPNW
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Re: Travels with the Ents (In Search of the Arcadia Cedar, 1

Post by kepPNW » January 27th, 2015, 10:12 pm

cfm wrote:signed, the cfm, crappy tree finder

Image
Love it!
Karl
Back on the trail, again...

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